Privacy & Cookie Policy

Introduction

This privacy notice aims to give you information on how we collect and process your personal data. It is important that you read this Privacy Notice together with any other Privacy Notice or Fair Processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you that you are truly aware of how and why we are using your data.

Our aim is to respect your privacy and comply with the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 18) and the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (GDPR).

Who we are

ECL is the trading name of Essex Cares Limited, Registered in England and Wales (Company Number 06723149) with a registered office at Seax House, Victoria Road South, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 1QH.

We are registered with the information Commissioners Office in the UK with reference number Z1801658.

We have a Data Protection Officer role, (fulfilled by our Head of Quality and Corporate Governance) they ensure we respect your rights and follow the law. If you have any concerns or questions about how we look after your personal information, please contact the Data Protection Officer, on the details provided in the further advice and guidance section below.

What is personal information?

The legal definition of personal data (information) is – any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified in particular by reference to an identifier.

There are different categories of personal information

Personal Information: This this will include information such as your name, identification number, contact details.

Sensitive Personal Information: This will include information such as ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, criminal information or information concerning your health and social care.

Why do we need your personal information?

We may need to use information about you to:

Deliver services and support to you.

Manage those services we provide to you.

Train and manage the employment of our workers who deliver those services.

Help investigate any concerns or complaints you have about our services.

Keep track of spending on services.

Check the quality of services.

To help with research and planning of new services.

There are a number of legal reasons why we need to collect and use your personal information:

You, or your legal representative, have given consent.

You have entered into a contract with us.

It is necessary to protect someone in an emergency.

It is required by law.

It is necessary for employment purposes.

It is necessary to deliver health or social care services.

It is necessary for legal cases.

It is necessary to protect public health.

Who we share information with

We use a range of organisations to either store personal information or help deliver our services to you. Where we have these arrangements there is always an agreement in in place to make sure that the organisation complies with data protection law. Before entering into a new contract or before we change the way we use and share information we will complete a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) to ensure we protect your privacy and comply with the law.

Sometimes we have a legal duty to provide personal information to other organisations. Such as for the purpose of our services which are regulated by the Care Quality Commission, we are required to provide personal information about the people who use the service and the staff who work in the service.

We may also share your personal information when we feel there is a good reason and that is more important than protecting your privacy. This is not routine, but we may share your information to:

In order to find and stop crime and fraud; or if there are serious risks to the public, our staff or others.

To protect adults who are thought to be at risk, for example where there is a safeguard enquiry and need to inform the Local Authority and in some cases the Care Quality Commission or the Police.

We will also try to discuss the sharing of your information and where possible seek your permission to let others know before doing so, but in some circumstance we will still share the information if we believe the risk is serious enough, or we may have to share information immediately without discussion where the risk is great.

Your Rights

The law gives you a number of rights to control what personal information is used by us and how it is used by us. To learn more about these rights please see the ICO website.

You can ask for access to the information we hold on you.

We would normally expect to share what we record about you with you whenever we assess your needs or provide you with services.

However, you also have the right to ask for all the information we have about you and the services you receive from us. When we receive a request from you in writing, we must give you access to everything we’ve recorded about you. This would apply to all personal information that is in paper or electronic records held by us.

We will be unable to provide you with information in your records which;

Contains confidential information about other people

Information that a professional thinks will cause serious harm to your or someone else’s physical or mental wellbeing

If we think that giving you the information may stop us from preventing or detecting a crime

We hold and use, but we are processing on behalf of another company or organisation where they are responsible.

Such as the provision of services in Essex – known as Short Term Support in the Community, Reablement at Home, Equipment Services and Sensory Services – which would be the responsibility of Essex County Council.

If you are unable to request your records in writing, we will support you to make it in the alternative format. Please contact us with any queries you have in regards to your request by phone on 03330 145438 or email information.governance@essexcares.org.

You can request to have inaccurate information updated.

You can ask us to change information you think is inaccurate. We may not always be able to change or remove that information but we’ll correct factual inaccuracies and may include your comments in the record to show that you disagree with it.

You can ask to erase information (right to be forgotten)

In some circumstances you can ask for your personal information to be deleted, for example:

Where your personal information is no longer needed for the reason why it was collected in the first place.

Where you have removed your consent for us to use your information, and there is no other legal reason us to use it.

Where there is no legal reason for the use of your information

Where deleting the information is a legal requirement

Where your personal information has been shared with others, we will do what we can to make sure those using your personal information comply with your request for erasure.

Please note that sometimes we cannot delete your information such as where:

We are required to have it by law.

It is used for public health purposes.

It is necessary for legal claims.

Restrict the use of your information

You can ask to limit what we use your personal data for. You have the right to ask us to restrict what we use your personal information for where:

You have identified inaccurate information, and have told us of it.

Where we have no legal reason to use that information but you want us to restrict what we use it for rather than erase the information altogether.

When information is restricted it can’t be used other than to securely store the data and with your consent to handle legal claims and protect others, or where it’s for important public interests of the UK. Where restriction of use has been granted, we’ll inform you before we carry on using your personal information.

You have the right to ask us to stop using your personal information. However, if this request is approved this may cause delays or prevent us delivering that service.

Where possible we’ll seek to comply with your request, but we may need to hold or use information because we are required to by law.

You can ask to have your information moved to another provider (data portability)

You have the right to ask for your personal information to be given back to you or another service provider of your choice in a commonly used format. This is called data portability.

However this only applies if we’re using your personal information with consent (not if we’re required to by law) and if decisions were made by a computer and not a human being.

It’s likely that data portability will not apply to most of the services you receive from the ECL, as they are commissioned by a local authority and provided under contract.

Other Rights

You can ask to have any computer made decisions explained to you, and details of how we may have ‘risk profiled’ you.

You have the right to question decisions made about you by a computer, unless it’s required for any contract you have entered into, required by law, or you’ve consented to it.

You also have the right to object if you are being ‘profiled’. Profiling is where decisions are made about you based on certain things in your personal information, e.g. your health conditions.

If ECL uses your personal information to profile you, in order to deliver the most appropriate service to you, you will be informed.

How Long We Keep Your Personal Data

We do not collect more information than we need to fulfil our stated purposes and will not retain it for longer than is necessary.

To look at how long we keep information, you are able to view our retention schedule here www.ecl.org/retention. How long we keep information for varies from months to several years dependant on the record type.

Protecting Your Personal Data

We are committed to ensuring that your personal data is secure, whether it is a paper record or held electronically. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place appropriate technical, physical and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect from you.

We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

Examples of how we keep our information secure include:

Encryption, meaning that information is hidden so that it cannot be read without special knowledge (such as a password). This is done with a secret code or what’s called a ‘cypher’. The hidden information is said to then be ‘encrypted’.

Pseudonymisation, this is where we use a different name so we can hide parts of your personal information from view.

Controlling access to systems and networks allows us to stop people who are not allowed to view your personal information from getting access to it.

Annual training for all our staff to ensure they are aware how to handle information and how and when to report when something goes wrong.

Regular testing of our technology and ways of working including keeping up to date on the latest security updates (commonly called patches).

Most our information is stored systems in the UK. There are some occasions where your information may leave the UK either in order to get to another organisation or if it’s stored in a system outside of the EU. We have additional protections on your information if it leaves the UK ranging from secure ways of transferring data to ensuring we have a robust contract in place with that third party.

If you want detailed information from Get Safe Online on how to protect your information and your computers and devices against fraud, identify theft, viruses and many other online problems, please visit. www.getsafeonline.org. Get Safe Online is supported by MH Government and leading businesses.

Further information and guidance

If you have any concerns or questions about how we use your personal information, you can speak with our Data Protection Officer.

Cookies

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. The ones used on http://www.eclsensoryservice.org are described below.

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This is created by the site for your current session.

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This is used on our site, and their cookie usage is detailed through the below link.

Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set, visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

Find out how to manage cookies on popular browsers:

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Microsoft Internet Explorer

Apple Safari

To find information relating to other browsers, visit the browser developer’s website.